are imperial eunuchs an often repeated feature of late decadent empires? we see them in chinese empires, ottoman, eastern roman empire, not so much in eastern roman empire but you had the cult of Cybele that went in that direction and things like Elagabalus. are there other examples? what's their function and why do they appear in decadent empires?
>>16544560Eunuchs can be bought off purely with material goods, short term rewards. They don't need assets or land because they're degenerate homos who don't leave a family behind.The use of eunuchs is a clear signal that the people at the very top want to hoard absolutely all cash paying assets, there is no growth left in the system and it may be declining.
Troons right now for another example
>>16544560they weren't "late decadent"narses for example was a eunuch and that was at the cusp of when one could say the eastern roman empire became "byzantine"also the chinese had eunuchs for thousands of years
>>16544734they may be eunuchs around all the time, but they only take over-sized relevance and capture the bureaucratic institutions in late empires, no?
>>16544753alongside with women
>>16544560>>16544667samefag
>>16544560Imperial China always had eunuchs. But there is one feature of the late Han dynasty worth noting - eunuch cliques holding real power over weak emperors. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.
>>16544560They're common in large autocratic empires as a form of primitive bureaucracy. Has nothing to do with "decadence". If an autocratic ruler surrounds himself with noble advisors it's within their eventual interests to plot against him in the interests of their own dynasties. A eunuch will never plot to overthrow the emperor to seize power himself because he's disfigured, seen as less than a man and can't sire offspring.With a system of palace eunuchs an emperor doesn't have to assign important government roles to prominent members of noble families which leads to factionalism, regionalism and civil war.
how painful is it to become an eunuch?how do eunuch even recover from such a surgery?
>>16544560Eunuchs have always existed in Imperial Rome, they existed in the Republic.>>16544641Eunuchs often adopted somebody to carry on their estates after they die.
>>16544560The very first transgender group was in Scythia which was neither an empire nor decadent so your entire hypothesis falls flat on the face of that fact.
>>16548198>>16548234it's not about if they exist or not, it's about the times when they have a big influence in imperial power in decadent times
>>16548657They were not a sign of "decadence" they were used because most people would not follow eunuch, so they could not rebel against you, and they couldn't leave heirs, so you didn't need to promise them titles and lands to pass on to their kids. That's why some societies used them for hundreds, even thousands of years. The decadence thing was largely a bias against the easterners, who at the time were frankly more advanced and had a more efficient government.
